5 September 2017 - First day of second grade. It was a rough morning but he got there. #notforwusses

10 September 2017 - Ian lost his other front tooth today.

10 September 2017 - Ian and I had a lovely breakfast date at Panera. Then I did a bunch of yard work out front. Ian walked to retrieve his bike from my folks' house and then rode it to 7-11 for a sleeve of donuts "like Daddy liked to get" because he had money burning a hole in his wallet.

I organized our rain gear, flash lights, and batteries in the closet so I'm ready for a natural disaster of certain flavors and moderate duration.

Ian's left front tooth was crazy loose all morning and he bravely pulled it out this afternoon. We played some Minecraft together and snuggled. When I got home from Walmart and was annoyed he wasn't answering my calls to help bring groceries in, I discovered he was passed OUT on the couch.

He is still there now and refused to wake up for dinner. I think this cold/cough is wearing him out. I'm happy to let him stay there for a few hours until I head to bed. The dogs are guarding him.

12 September 2017 - Cute Ian things this evening:He told me he took an "algae bra" test today and got 100. He also took great care rolling over in his bed to keep Kitterson from being spooked and leaving. Crazy cat lady in training.

14 September 2017 - Ian and I just started watching the original Star Trek series (it streams free on Amazon Prime). In episode 1 ("The Man Trap"), Kirk called up to the ship's transport room.

Ian: "Wait! Whoa. Seriously? They have an awesome spaceship that we haven't even invented yet. And they still use flip phones?! I mean, c'mon!"

I'm happy to say he followed along and loved it. He was yelling at the TV, "The lady is the killer, guys!"

17 September 2017 - Bedtime = the perfect time for Ian to tell very lengthy explanations of exactly how much he loves me (at least 50 on a 1-10 scale). Also, it's the time for dropping math truth bombs like 8,743,590,321,452 is an even number because only the last number matters.

As he closed his eyes, he said he didn't want to go to school tomorrow morning because he didn't get enough weekend. I reminded him of all we did and that weekends are for relaxing. I also told him we're going to pick up JJ's Harley tomorrow so he can look forward to that.

He happily went to sleep with that info.

24 September 2017 - “Mommy, at school they say anything is possible but that’s not true. Humans can’t lay bird eggs.”

25 September 2017 - Let the record show that on Monday the 25th from 5:55pm to 6:05pm, my child was forced to do his homework. In addition, from 6:07pm to 6:12pm, he endured the chores of cleaning the dog door and putting away his laundry.

Thoughts and prayers appreciated for his struggle.

27 September 2017 - I’m rubbing Ian’s back in the dark and think he’s almost asleep when:

“Hey, Mom? You know if you wanted to paint your house, what you could do? If you didn’t have a big enough paint bucket, you could just get a paint gun and just shoot your house to paint it. ...... Or I guess you could just hire somebody.”